The Senate Homeland Security Committee voted to promote the nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas as Secretary of Homeland Security, and drafted a full Senate vote on his confirmation.
The committee voted Tuesday to 7 to send its nomination to the Senate floor Tuesday, with one additional vote against the proxy. GOP Senators Ron Johnson, James Lankford, Rick Scott, Josh Hawley and Rand Paul voted against promoting Mayorkas to a full Senate vote.
Mayorkas testified before the committee last week.
Johnson led the complaint among those who registered their opposition, and expressed concern over a report by the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2015, which found that Mayorkas had campaigned for approval of applications for a program for wealthy immigrant investors on behalf of well-connected Democrats. he was director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
“My preference would have been not to air this dirty laundry in public. I would have hoped that President Biden would have had a better sense of nominating and implementing the nomination,” the outgoing chairman said. He later added: ‘I had a good working relationship with Mr. Mayorkas as deputy secretary of DHS and hopes to work with him in good faith if he is confirmed as secretary. I simply cannot support his nomination, and I would urge members not to either. ”
GOP senators Rob Portman and Mitt Romney expressed concern about the 2015 report, but ultimately voted to push his nomination to the upper chamber.
“We have just endured a president for more than four years, who I will generously say has had a relaxed relationship with the truth. And I think we want the highest level of integrity in government positions,” Romney noted. noted that Mayorkas’ acknowledges his mistakes in a private conversation and promises to learn from them.
“It’s hard,” Portman admitted. Finally, the Senator from Ohio reasoned that Mayorkas’ fate had already been sealed. “He’s going to be confirmed. The question is how fast he’s going to be in his place,” he told his colleagues, noting how important it is to put a secretary at the helm of DHS in the wake of Solar’s cyber attack Winds.
The soon-to-be Democratic chairman Gary Peters urged colleagues to “speed up the confirmation of Mayorkas” as much as possible “.
“In fact, every day that this confirmation process is delayed, the American people and our national security risk pose a threat of threats through domestic terrorism, cyber attacks and the ongoing pandemic and so much more,” Peters said.
Senators wished Portman well after announcing his resignation from the Senate in 2022. Then Romney laughed in between: “Don’t worry about him leaving, because he’s just arranging his campaign for president.”